'Common wisdom holds that from the beginning women entered some academic fields such as the humanities and avoided others for example physics or mathematics. Developments in Germany up to the 1930s contradict this assumption: In the natural sciences and mathematics, the percentage of female students... view more

'Common wisdom holds that from the beginning women entered some academic fields such as the humanities and avoided others for example physics or mathematics. Developments in Germany up to the 1930s contradict this assumption: In the natural sciences and mathematics, the percentage of female students was higher than the average percentage of female students in all other academic fields. What contributed to, what caused this unexpected distribution? How can we explain the discontinuities in the long-term developments of female students' relative frequencies in specific academic subjects? Some answers to these questions are discussed in this study, containing results of a current research project financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The basic assumptions refer to the theory of doing gender: This theory claims that what is characterized as typically male or female is historically variable and constructed according to specific cultural and social contexts. Thus essentialism is negated. The main data base of this project are educational statistics of German universities. Our statistical analyses (e.g. loglinear analysis) and data from other sources show interrelated effects of the development of girls' secondary schools, their preparations for university studies, chances on the labour market and social status on the subjects of study as well as an professional careers. New academic fields like social sciences and economics became gendered very quickly, resulting in segregation of careers by sex. The cultural and educational system and even official recommendaeions constructed gender stereotypes of professions. These stereotypes increasingly influenced female pupils in their career patterns during the 1930s. At that time employment chances in some professions were drastically reduced and administrative restrictions against women were introduced. This occured even before the Nazis seized power.' (author's abstract)... view less